


Emilia

by ChoCho_witch



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bondage, Bullying, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Dumbledore's Army, F/F, Fluff and Smut, Harry Potter is Not the Boy-Who-Lived, Lesbian Character, Lesbian Sex, Muggle/Wizard Relations, Room of Requirement, SQUIB PRIDE because SOMEONE has to!!!, Smut, Squibs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-01-30 04:15:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 19,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21422014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChoCho_witch/pseuds/ChoCho_witch
Summary: Everyone knew Harry taught Defense against the Dark Arts to students - inspired by this a group of Ravenclaws decide to create their own teaching group to compensate Umbridge's bad lessons.Emilia, one of the greatest witches in Hogwarts - who however had been a bullying victim for years - wants to join as she hopes to gain some friends. Time shows, she gains way more than just a friend...~~~~~~~~"Please Professor Trelawney, hear me out! The prophesy - you've made a grave mistake!"..."Professor, the seventh month is SEPTember!"
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is set in HP universe featuring many of my original characters, and Harry's story will be described from the perspective of other students.
> 
> I wont change the original story, despite a few minor details: for example I raised the time pupils stay in Hogwarts from 7 to 9 years to make sure everyone is at least 18.
> 
> I am not native, so if any translation from the HP books seem weird it probably comes from me trying to translate without having read the books in english. This is also the first thing i ever wrote honestly, so please dont be too harsh. Feedback is still appreciated of course :)

Emilia was a very talented witch. Although she was rather lazy when it came to her subjects, and usually was occupied with all sorts of other interests and studies of her own instead of focusing on homework, she still managed to be a straight O student in nearly all courses. Her birthday was in October, so she was one of the oldest students in her class.

Even at the beginning of her seventh year her teachers were certain she wouldn't have the slightest issues passing her NEWTS - almost 3 years before her graduation. She has been called an outstanding pupil by even the longest working teachers in Hogwarts, and those had had many of her kind. Despite her intelligence the sorting hat took a very long time to sort her, placing her in Ravenclaw in the end.

There were many things she was known for however – her grades was only a small reason. From her first day in Hogwarts she seemed different. She was a quiet, reserved girl, that rarely talked. Unlike most students who only wore them on special occasions or as a coat, Emilia wore her long, black robe continuously. Wherever she was, she seemed to be completely out of her mind.

When she learned the first basics of magic her persistence in learning already showed: after a few weeks in the library and some rather unfortunate accidents she exited her dorm with dark, long black hair, despite her natural hair colour being brown. Every attempt from teachers to prohibit the unnatural colour in her hair was unsuccessful – no matter the punishment and no matter the amount of undying her teachers performed, the next day her hair went back to black.  
  


She was very isolated the first year in Hogwarts. She seemed so different in the way she acted and appeared, so rumours and lies started to spread about her. Envy was the very first thing she challenged, due to her outstanding performances from day one. After a certain time, students mocked her about her robe and hair.

In second grade 3 boys held her down before class and joked whether she wore anything underneath. When they forcefully opened the robe, a long, black dress with numerous ribbons and laces appeared. She was called a freak and laughed at. Her teachers discussed it, but in the end didn't prohibit the dress.

After a few weeks Emilia started to curse the curtains around her bed to not be opened whenever she slept, and a spell prevented sounds to go through, so not even her roommates seemed to get through to her - not that they tried anyways. She spent her nights isolated in her bed. Some of her teachers were worried about her. Most however didn't care. She never badly misbehaved and due to her good grades she was barely punished.

Snape punished her rigorously in her first year, however since she showed particular interest in his class he started leaving her alone. It was a continuous pattern – wherever she was, people started to forget she was there due to her quiet, calm nature, and her traits and interests that seemed to violate rules, often in an indirect or small way, was something people got used to.

But the bullying got worse. Due to her very pale skin and her gothic appearance the rumour of her being a vampire spread. In 4th grade someone filled her entire locker in garlic sauce. “Holy” water, aka water with itching powder was poured onto her and some classmates started screaming as if they were in pain whenever she walked into the sun to mock her.

One time someone placed a dead bat on her desk, which made McGonagall furious. She held a long speech in front of the class how disappointed she was in her students to mock a witch in such a bad manner only based on her looks – Emilia however had other plans. She placed one hand on her heart, and one on the bats chest and murmured a prayer. In the middle of McGonagalls speech the bat burst into blue, cold flames and disappeared.

Most pupils didn't recognize it, but McGonagall knew it was a spell and burying ritual from a cult that has long been considered dead. After class she called Emilia to her desk and advised her to never use such magic again. Emilia promised to, admitting she was never really interested in the religious aspects of such magic, only in their power and functionality.

The bullying didn't stop, although the amount of pupils mocking her decreased with their age. Those who continued though became crueller and crueller. Emilia therefore needed different ways to avoid them – and focused her research on a topic she had always been split about.

Ever since her divination lessons she was both fascinated and annoyed by it, since it didn't seem to be as simple as other lessons – or it was just total nonsense. However, long after the class, she did further research and experiments.

She was about to give up when she finally succeeded. She foretold one of her bullies to trap her with a spell in a hallway, and although she didn't really understand HOW she foretold it and what kind of spell it was, she used her knowledge and turned the spell around. To her delight it was a very simple, yet effective spell that would blind the opponent and made them loose their balance. When he collapsed and she realized what kind of spell he had wanted to put on her she laughed hysterically and released him from the darkness.

Without a word she continued her way with a large smile in her face. Scared by her rather evil laugh, which she had never done before, and the magical power that radiated from her simple magic to turn his’ around, he never attempted such spells on her again. It was clear to nearly everyone, beating her in a duel was almost impossible for regular students.

Ever since then her divination skills only increased. She found empty hallways and places in the entire school she has never been in to practice and study – even during the night. First she only studied divination, later all kinds of magic. Her knowledge over other pupils and their lifes and family was growing as she foretold events she hadn't attended simply by observing waves in the water of sinks she filled, in leaves she collected in the forbidden forest and needles she dropped on bathroom tiles. She let some of the knowledge slip purposefully to scare her bullies, which worked wonders, and after a short amount of time she was left alone.

Her life could be seen almost as a success. A straight O student with lots of interests, who made her bullying stop with mere magical superiority and who had most of her teachers back.

However of course she was lonely. When she came to Hogwarts she had hoped to meet people like her, but that wasn't the case. She was extremely introverted, and although she wasn't particularly shy, she still never found a way to talk to people unless she wanted something specific – not a good way to start friendships.

In her 6 th  year in school things slowly changed. The pupils around her grew older, and although the jokes about vampires never left her, they still decreased. She was no longer cornered in hallways and had to fight her way outside of bullies, and she didn't have to expect missing a prophesy and finding her property destroyed, drowned in fake blood or hidden. The opposite happened – her classmates started to be interested in her as they matured. They wanted to know about her abilities, and she could teach them quite a few useful things.

Having been alone for so long made it hard to adapt to new friends. At first she was very awkward, constantly struggling to find the right words, worried that every sentence she formed might be wrong and turned against her. She had always played tough, she always hid in her studies, in corners of the school and avoiding people as much as possible. She had always been an introvert, but no contact whatsoever tore on her soul. It took a long time until she accepted the few people she met as friends, and even then she never stopped hiding from other people. However it made her less worried.

After having spent years in Hogwarts, knowing more about the building than even some teachers, she stood in front of a door she had never seen. It appeared out of no where, but opening it made her wildest dreams come true. She had found her perfect hiding spot. Emilia was one of those very fortunate pupils who learned about the room of requirement.

The political situation tensed after her 6 th  year when Voldemort might have returned. Emilia had always been glad when new rumours about Harry Potter spread, since it meant her bullies were occupied with different things. She often wondered whether she should be jealous, or just be glad she wasn't him. Emilia was lonely, had no friends and almost no one to have her back, while Harry had very many, loyal people around him. But on the other side, Emilia knew, when she left her circle, especially her age group and house in Hogwarts, many pupils didn't know her, and she was just a weird goth girl from a higher year or different house.

This time however the rumours were different, now not only Hogwarts seemed to be involved, the entire world of wizards, or at least the western world, seemed to have turned against Harry Potter.

When the triwizard tournament ended in the exact disaster her teapot had told her for months, she attempted one last prophesy before heading to bed – and was baffled by the sheer amount of evil her tea leaves portrayed. It didn't take her long to figure out why. It wasn't only Voldemort who was back, it was the way the highest politicians handled the situation.

That Harry didn't lie was obvious to her, and she wondered how anyone could even only look up to the clouds in the sky without trembling in fear. Emilia distanced herself from the occurrences, trying not to get involved in such things. But even she sometimes couldn’t stand the blatant nonsense people started spinning around Harry's story. She could convince a fair amount of pupils that Harry's story maybe wasn't the whole truth, but that there were many things about it that fit very well.

When 7 th  grade began, Emilia had gained a few friends. None of which she would have considered close friends, and especially in the dining hall she was afraid to sit with them unless invited, but they were nice to her, talked with her in the hallways and sometimes even took her to Hogsmeade.

She never understood why she would want to go there – overall the times when pupils went to Hogsmeade were those when Hogwarts was the most silent and peaceful – but when she joined her friends, listening to their stories and jokes, she almost felt like she belonged. Slowly she started warming up.

A girl called Sally she shared her room with even made her sit with her on the bed in the evening where they talked about all sorts of things. It took her 6 years, but finally it seemed like she had arrived in Hogwarts.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is set in HP universe featuring many of my original characters, and Harry's story will be described from the perspective of other students.
> 
> I wont change the original story, despite a few minor details: for example I raised the time pupils stay in Hogwarts from 7 to 9 years to make sure everyone is at least 18.
> 
> I am not native, so if any translation from the HP books seem weird it probably comes from me trying to translate without having read the books in english. This is also the first thing i ever wrote honestly, so please dont be too harsh. Feedback is still appreciated of course :)

Emilia sighed and placed her head in her hand. Umbridge was, hands down, the worst teacher she ever had. And not only that, there were these particular students in her class that always seemed to find it intelligent to challenge her. As if it would change anything to tell her what she did here was utter nonsense.  That woman had nothing to fear, and every attempt to disobey her rules undoubtedly were meant to backfire. 

At least it was pretty obvious how to please her – the dumber the answer, the better it went. Emilia's tactic was simple: Umbridge knew very well of her skills, so purposefully answering wrongly showed her one  important thing: Emilia would not be her concern. 

Of course she knew that Emilia probably  had known the answer 2 years ago  already , but this woman  wasn't here to teach anything. She was here to make politics, and whether or not she taught her pupils the materials they were supposed to learn or not was none of her concern, therefore arguing about whether or not her claims were right, or arguing about what they had to learn was a useless endeavour. 

Emilia focused on those things she actually cared about instead – foretelling the next prank pulled on her in the folds of her dress, and making sure she would “attend” the show. Honestly, she was quite surprised how tough  divination still was for her, as she realized that foretelling ANYTHING random she happened to stumble across was so much more simple than something in particular. And even then she  wasn't sure whether it had really been her  effort or simple chance. 

Emilia was glad she never made a big fuss about her divination skills and that she didn't even dare to tell her friends (mostly Ravenclaws and very averse to such things), as they would have obviously been the first things Umbridge questioned her about. It was a threat to her. Emilia knew from the first encounter with this woman that skill and knowledge was something she feared and needed to prevent, and she didn't plan to let Umbridges fear become a weapon against her.

When the lesson was finally over Umbridge still was cornered by 3 students who seemed to not have given up the fight. Emilia  didn't care, she grabbed her book and left the room. She had no interest in  joining lunch in the dining room and headed straight to the room of requirement. Ever since she found it it was her hiding space. 

But for a few days now, things were different.  Everyone knew about Harry Potters plans to teach students and pupils those things Umbridge missed to teach. Emilia was certain this was their solution to a save area to practice. It had surprised her, as she thought she  was  one of the only students who even knew about this room.

A room everyone could transform depending on their wish was nothing that would go unnoticed if more than a few students found out about it.  S imply based on the fact that no one seemed to even talk about it, and that most of the times all the hallways around the room were pretty empty she figured  there  couldn't be many students who knew about its  existence. In fact, she knew of a few, but it never seemed to spread. The secret was too big to tell many people – plus, it was a perfect way to hide, only idiots would risk making teachers aware of it as there was a positive chance it was possible to disable the room.

Emilia closed the door behind her. The room was small and dark. Chains hang from the ceiling and the walls were covered in black  curtains. Black candles on the floor formed a circle around a small, maybe half a meter high and round desk  that was covered in runes and symbols. Pillows lay around the desk, and a crystal ball  stood in its middle . A door to the other side of the room lead to a wide, open area, where Emilia used to practice all kinds of spells. 

Pulling a book out of her bag she had grabbed in the library, she sat down on her table and started reading, always keeping an eye on her crystal ball.  Time passed, and Emilia kept checking her watch to not miss the beginning of her next lesson.

She was about to  get  up  again  as  a weak flickering in the crystal ball  caught her  eye . It was very clear, almost the clearest vision she ever had. S lowly a scene between two  students formed . One  of them certainly was  Steward, one of those guys  in her class who always seemed to challenge Umbridge like no one else. Emilia had seen the scars on his hands,  which were  indeed quite nasty,  although he rather praised himself for them . 

The second guy however was surprising. Although she wasn't 100% sure, she was pretty certain it was Sam. Sam was in his 9th year and although her teachers told her that he wasn't as good as her, he still was one of the best students in Hogwarts, alongside with Hermione Granger. Emilia had no idea where they were, but the message was pretty clear: Harry wasn't the only one who created a training course. 

  
Emilia watched the scene for a few moments until the vision subsided. Getting involved in Harr y’ s business was too dangerous for her. Wherever that boy went, there seemed to be drama. This one however was interesting, and she was quite intrigued to find out how this idea developed. She knew Sam knew about the room  of requirements ,  she found him sneaking around in the hallways numerous times before he broke up with his girlfriend. 

“What a waste” she had thought, but maybe now Sam would learn to appreciate the rooms possibilities. After checking the time Emilia got up, stretched her legs and left the room.

Sally had lots of things to talk about today. She wasn't to be stopped – not like Emilia planned to answer much – but during the 30 minutes they sat on her bed now she never seemed to even breath. It was almost time to shut the lights and Emilia felt her eyes get heavier and heavier each minute. It was hard for her to follow, and that Emilia didn't care in particular about gossiping didn't help.

But she liked listening to Sally. At first it had been quite annoying, but her prejudice towards the extroverted girl was unfair. Yes, she gossiped, but during many occasions in their very one sided conversations now Emilia realized that Sally only wanted the best for others. She wanted to please people, and gossiping about arguments and other things that occurred was her way to calm herself down.

A year ago she would never have imagined that Sally would ever be her friend. Sally had annoyed her with her uninterrupted talking and encouragement to join events. Now she understood that Sally only had wanted to help her, and make her gain some friends. Emilia was happy about their friendship. Sally had many friends, so Emilia wasn't in her focus. When they went to bed, Emilia didn't cast her spell to keep the curtains shut. She hadn't done it in quite some time.

The weeks passed where Emilia kept an eye on Sam. It  didn't take long for her to find him sneaking around in the hallways leading to the room of requirement again, this time silently followed by other students. Emilia was sure the lessons they planned had already begun, and she had to lie to say she  wasn't interested. She was certain even at least 2 of her classmates followed him. She needed a plan to talk to him, alone.  When s he still tried to figure out how to approach the topic, fate  took things in its own hands…

Emilia was about to get hers and Sally's butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks Inn when she stumbled into Sam on her way through the crowd. The entire Inn was full and she stood there, with a perfect opportunity to start a conversation. “Can I ask you something?”, she stuttered without even apologizing. Sam, who was taken by surprise, needed a few seconds to answer with a short, confused “Sure”. Emilia talking to someone wasn't particularly ordinary.

Emilia looked around very carefully. “How is your course? Your training, or whatever you call it?”, she asked, trying to say as vague as possible.

Sam's face went white, he took a small step back. “I  don't know what you are talking ab-” 

“Your study group I mean”, Emilia said and smiled innocently. “You know how they say I am really good? I would like to, you know, join. Maybe ask Steward!”. 

Sam was silent for a few seconds and seemed to regain his composure.

“Look”, Emilia added, “I get it, you don't know me well enough but if the other… members are okay with it, why not give it a try? Think about it, if you or the others don't agree on letting me join your uhm… study group, just forget I asked. Fine?” 

Emilia turned around and left him. Everyone had been pretty loud, and no thing seemed to be out of the ordinary. However, having stared at people for so long she knew that especially those who spied were very hard to spot. She hoped Sam got the message, and  that it was vague enough that the conversation seemed innocent, just in case someone had paid attention. 

She grabbed the butterbeer and went back to her desk.  Sally's facial expression was the relief she needed. Her friends mouth was wide open, and her eyes sparkled in excitement. “So you and SAAAAHAM?” was the first thing she managed to get out.


	3. Chapter 3

E milia almost gave up her hope to be included in Sams group. Many of the students that  followed Sam seemed to ignore her, and she feared they  wouldn't want her to join. She understood that they needed to be careful though and  didn't bring up the topic again. She was walking towards her place in the dining room as Sam suddenly threw one arm around her shoulder. 

“Wanna grab a butterbeer this weekend in Hogsmeade?”, he said and grinned.

“Yeah, I do.”, Emilia answered.

“Nice, See you on Saturday!”.

Emilia smiled. It seemed like they made a decision.

~~

Sam already waited for her at the door when she entered the Inn.  Emilia followed Sam to a table that was almost submerged in the crowd.  She was greeted by mainly unfamiliar faces, but also Steward and one of his friends Jeremy. Another girl in her class,  Kathy, looked at her pretty suspiciously. Sam directed her to a chair in between them and sat  down  right next to her. The group  instantly started talking again, mainly about things such as dates for tests or homework, school projects, weekend plans and other things.  A ll of them were pretty loud . Sam had learned from her strategy to keep them surrounded,  which she had to admit was something she learned from Harry’s mistake . Emilia smiled at  Sam.

“You do know what you were talking about, do you?” he asked carefully.

“I do.”, Emilia answered. “There's no need for secrets, I also know about the room.”

Sam was stunned. That part he didn't suspect.  
“See Sam, I’m not a snitch. I do know where you practice, I do know how the room works, I also know a few people who joined – not all, I have to admit though. If I was a snitch, I would have told everyone already.”

The last part was directed at Steward. He sat across her as the only one listening to her and Sam. He seemed to be most concerned about her joining the group – understandably, since it had been his idea.

“How?”, Sam looked very confused.

“Does it matter?”

“It does!” Steward snapped. “If YOU were able to find out, others -”

“Don't worry”, Emilia interrupted. “As you found out a few years ago, I am very occupied with hiding and finding out interesting things about others doings, plans and whereabouts. Not like you guys gave me a choice back then to act differently...”

Stewards face went bright red as he remembered the spell she redirected at him in the hallway, as well as various things about his family she should have never known about. It had always been a mystery how Emilia got her information, but she was never caught secretly listening.

“There's nothing you did wrong”, Emilia continued. “The opposite exactly. It was quite hard to contact you and know what you are up to discretely.”

That seemed to please them temporarily. Sam breathed deeply.

“Well, I guess its too late now. You know. So you might as well join, although, I have to admit, I do not know about anything WE could teach you”, Sam said carefully.

Emilia’s mood brightened. She could feel her pulse rise. Joining a group of people, having secret meetings and training with them – she hadn't done anything as exciting in a long time. Somehow she knew, they could get in real trouble. But it didn't matter to her. Umbridge’s focus was Harry, not them, and although the situation was serious it felt like a game to her.

“So… I'm in?”, she asked.

Steward and Sam exchanged looks for a second.  
“Yes”, Sam said finally, and Emilia almost laughed for joy.

“We will always discuss when to meet again at the end of each lesson. If you couldn't attend we will select one of us to ask you a specific question: ‘Lets meet for studying’ – and then the day and hour. Do not use this specific way to ask if someone has time to meet with you anytime else anymore! Also, it doesn't matter if you don't come at precisely the time we give you, spreading out a little is less suspicious. The room has a password – just think about that word in front of it and it will open” 

Sam then leaned down towards her and whispered: “The password is Einstein, next date is tomorrow, 5 o’clock”

Then Sam turned around and started chatting with Steward, as if their conversation never happened. Emilia contemplated staying, but after half a minute she realized she had nothing to say anymore. They talked about various things she didn't understand – parties they had been to, someones parents, relationships, what to gift someone for their birthday… Overall she didn't know these guys. She decided to get up and leave, hoping she could maybe make some friends in that group during the lessons.

~~

When Emilia walked up to the room of requirement the next day she was really excited. She wouldn't have guessed to be invited so early, and also didn't know what to expect. “Einstein”, what a weird password. It made sense when she thought about it. The name of a muggle scientist was probably the last thing anyone would think or say in this hallway. The door appeared before her – simply thinking about the word “Einstein” made the room to accept the password, just like Sam had told her. She entered quickly, pulling the door shut behind her.

The room this time was massive. When Emilia entered, many members already stood in the middle. It must have been around 15. Big chandeliers hang from the ceiling, and the walls were covered in carpets to reduce the echo. The floor wasn't as hard as it looked, it felt more like a worn out gym floor. Back in one corner was a small seating area, probably for those who were tired.

Emilia looked around, mainly to see who she was dealing with. She didn't know most of the students as they were at least one year above her. She recognized Steward, Jeremy wasn't to be seen. Kathy seemed to have calmed down, she wasn't as tense as she had been in Hogsmeade. And then she saw Sally. Emilia couldn't believe her eyes. Innocent little Sally joined a Dark Arts group? Sally shyly waved at her, and Emilia grinned.

“You could have told me you were here, that would have made things way less complicated!”, Emilia said.

“Sorry, if I had known you were interested I would have brought you with me to the first meeting. Sam told me about you joining today morning, I had no idea you knew...”

Just at this moment Sam entered the room.

“I see, you already integrated yourself”, he said with a wide grin.

Then he threw his arm around Emilia’s shoulder and pushed her towards the group. “Your chance to be shy is over, Emilia, you are part of this now”, he said, although Emilia got the feeling that his remark was rather directed towards the group than her.

She was right about Sam coordinating the group. Steward probably had the idea, but couldn't pull it off without Sam.

“So, who can show her what we all practised already?”, Sam asked.

“You mean, on her?”, a girl from the back laughed and the group giggled.

“No Jady, I mean-”

“Good idea!”, Emilia interrupted and already drew out her wand.

Jady, she hadn't recognized her at first glance. Her name was Jade, and she was popular for being especially hard-working, but also being competitive in nature. Emilia felt her blood rush through her in the thought of being challenged by her. It had been quite some time since someone challenged her for a duel, and only now she realized that she had missed it. Overall, she loved magic and working with it. She laughed about this thought internally – who would have guessed the duels were also fun, and not only a way to fight her bullies?

“Ok ok, calm down everyone, we are here to LEARN, not to fight”, Sam tried to intervene.

“Yes, but to learn fighting though! Why not see if the Vampire can actually bite”, Jady teased.

Suddenly Sally was on Emilia’s side.

“Stop it Jady, its her first time here, I think we should start slow! Be nice to her, she didn't do anything.”

“Be careful Jady”, a guy Emilia recognized from yesterday added. “I have seen her skills once, I don't know if you can take that challenge” He was on the smaller side, with brown, curly hair.

“What's that supposed to mean, Robert??”

“That you are an extraordinarily bad looser Jady!”, he grinned mockingly.

Jady’s head went bright red.

“Ok, that's enough! We aren't here to fight EACH OTHER, understood?”, Sam declared.

“We will go through what we already taught ourselves and what goals we still have. Alright? This discussion is over – now!”

Emilia was right, Sam had the entire group under control. They slowly started to list what they had done during their lessons. Emilia was surprised how advanced their magic was already. Apparently Sam was the one to teach the group most of the time, which was not surprising considering his abilities. Emilia was sure she could beat almost everyone in the group unless she had a very bad day, but about Sam she wasn't sure. He seemed to hold back on his skills quite a lot, and somehow Emilia sensed that his abilities were way greater than he showed. 

Most of the things they tried to teach themselves followed the lesson Defensive of the Dark Arts, which wasn't surprising since the group existed to replace those lessons. They covered both defence and attack – the main motto seemed to be: If you cant defend your magic, don't cast it.


	4. Chapter 4

After a quick introduction they all formed groups of 2.(Angie, a blond girl Emilia had never seen before, seemed to be quite disappointed that Sally chose Emilia as a partner this time) and started practising. Today's spell was simple: a spell that would push the opponent off their feet. Sam directed the schedule, but often times two groups came together. It seemed like they all watched others from time to time to either correct their mistakes or find their own. Whenever someone attacked very well, making their opponent fly through the room, or some of them just started to fool around, the group burst into laughter – not in a rude way though. They all seemed to have lots of fun.

Sally surprised Emilia. They had practised the spells in their last lesson but weren't satisfied with their result, Sally however seemed to have it under control already. Still, Emilia blocked all her attacks.

Sally kept getting better and better – still with no success against Emilia, which baffled her each time. She seemed to have underestimated how good Emilia really was.

“Don't treat me like a baby Emilia”, she suddenly said.

“Huh?” Emilia answered confusedly.

“I have absolutely no chance to attack you, you block everything! But your attack is super simple to defend. Are you scared you will hurt me, or that I will be mad if you attack me?”

Emilia didn't answer immediately. It was true, she didn't want to attack her best friend (best?? She had a best friend? The sudden realisation warmed her heart). She however increased the intensity of her attack with every turn, hoping to challenge her enough so she could learn.

Sally was right though – Emilia was afraid to hurt her.

“I guess I.. uhm..”

“I can take it Emilia, we had other things here that were worse to defend! I am supposed to learn, right?”, Emilia said with a smile.

“Yeah… right. But I don't think you can defend my attack -”

“That's why I said learn. Ok?”

Sally raised her wand again, casting her spell without letting Emilia answer. She defended without any issues, although she had to admit that her efforts to defend were increasing. Emilia took it as a good sign.

“Your turn”, Sally teased with a sincere smile.

Emilia sighed. “Fine”, she said.

“But remember, that's what you wished for!”

Without a warning she cast the spell non verbally at Sally, who didn't even have the time to start her defence. Sally flew for at least one meter, turned in the air and landed on the floor, still rolling. The rest of the group turned around, some of them grinning, others not sure on how to react.

Sally gathered herself from the floor. Seeing how everyone stared at her she just blurted a quick “What, no laughter this time? I'm sure it looked funny!” through the room.

Emilia smiled. She still didn't feel welcome in the group, but at least Sally seemed to have her back.

“No non verbal during the first round!”, Robert remarked.

“Yes”, Sam added, “Casting the spell non verbally is part of the second round! Sorry Emilia, I forgot to mention it”

“Dont worry, its okay.”, Sally said. “Well… I guess I have to step up my game….”

The lesson continued. Emilia could see how hard it became for Sally now that she tried to not hold back in her attacks, but she didn't stop pushing her friends limits. Sally was not bad, she had surprised her a bunch of times, but she was certainly not the best. Still, she learned quickly. When the non verbal part started, Sally already surpassed most of the others in the group.

Emilia gave lots of tips, and after some time it was hard for her attack to get through to Sally. She even started to struggle defending at some point. Non verbal was very hard for Sally, and after a few times of flying through the room she needed a break.

“You made really good progress”, Emilia cheered her up. “You are already better than the majority here!”

“Are you sure?”, she said, looking a bit disappointed. “Not gonna lie, its kind of frustrating to fight you...”

“Well, I had fun, especially in the end you still were a challenge for me! We have to work on your non verbal though”, Emilia grinned and was glad to see her smile back.

Both sat on a couch in the seating area for Sally to recover. She seemed out of breath, but not tired. Sally leaned on the back of the couch and Emilia sat slightly diagonal to her. Their knees almost touched. A strand of Sally's blonde, wavy hair fell over her blushed cheek. She was still panting a little, but her red lips formed a smile. She brushed the strand out of her face and tucked it behind her ear.

“What?”, Sally asked.

“Uhm… What do you mean?”

“Is something in my face?”

“Uh… no.”, Emilia answered. She didn't even realize her staring and quickly turned away. “Do you want to continue”

“… yeah, I do. The final duels just started”

“The...”

“In the end of the lesson we will duel, mainly with the spell we learned, but also with others. Basically we try to incooperate what we trained into our regular duel style, to make sure we will remember to use it.”, Sally explained.

Emilia grinned, although she wasn't sure on how far she could go this time. Not holding back in her attack to make Sally learn defence was one thing, but Sally releasing all her skills on her during a duel was another. It did sound like lots of fun to her, but she didn't want to frustrate Sally or, worst case, even hurt her, but she was also sure Sally wouldn't appreciate it if she let her win.

“I am not sure how far I can go with this...”

“Don't worry”, Sally said. “I know I stand no chance but maybe switch it up? One round you let me fight you a bit, another round you show me what I have to be able to defend one day? I mean… that's the point, that we are able to defend ourselves. We will see how it works out, I guess. But don't you dare let me win all the time again!”

Emilia laughed. It seemed like a good idea.

Both went back to the fighting area where the others already started the duels. Sam was in full teacher mode now. He walked around, gave tips, showed others what they did wrong.

Sally positioned herself maybe 2 meters away from Emilia. She played cool, but still looked tense. Emilia decided to let her fight the first rounds, and launched a variety of spells at Sally, and many of them seemed unfamiliar to her. Nevertheless she did a good job defending. Emilia's judgement was correct – Sally's defence was very strong.

After some time their duel didn't really have a start and an end since it was clear who would win. It was rather a back and forth in attacks and defence. Sparkles flew around the room and from time to time a large bang indicated a strong attack that had been blocked. The rest of the group was in full duel mode now, and the different kinds of spells people came up with was fascinating even for Emilia to see. She imagined that the others had learned a lot from themselves simply by duelling regularly.

Sally was very tense in the beginning – she probably was a bit afraid of Emilia – but started to relax aoon. Emilia's attacks and defensive strategies were rather on the fun side, such as creating a wall of hopping bunnies that would make Sally loose vision to Emilia and block her spells if she hit one, which amused both of them.

Of course they made sure to use the practised attack from time to time as well. With every attack Sally's creativity grew. One time she made the floor slippery with ice so Emilia almost tripped if she hadn't broken it in tiny pieces with another spell.

There was one attack Emilia didn't see coming however. An extremely simple spell to move objects around. Sally cast it onto her, but instead of pulling her feet away to make her loose balance, which Emilia was prepared for, she simply turned Emilia around. The perplex girl suddenly stood there, facing the wall, away from her “enemy”.

Sally laughed when she realized it had worked.

“Haha, I got you! I'm over here Emilia, that's the wrong way”, Sally giggled.

This was too much teasing for Emilia, THAT game Sally would loose.

“Are you SURE you got me?”

Before even fully turning around she cast the practised spell completely non verbal on Sally – and Sally flew off her feet. She hadn't hit the ground yet when Emilia cast another spell, tying Sally's arms and legs so she couldn't move. It was just a simple move to show her who she was still dealing with.

“I win”, Emilia declared with a victorious grin, walking towards her friend.

She looked at Sally on the floor in front of her and realized: her attack might have been a little harsh.

Her plan was just to immobilize her a bit, but there were glowing, magical ropes all around Sally's body. Her legs were tied together on her ankles, below and above her knees and on her thighs, making it impossible to separate them even just a little bit. Another rope looped around her thigh and ankle which pulled her feet up as far as possible, as if she would kneel. Her arms were tied on her wrists and above her elbows, with two ropes tying her already tied arms to her torso. A silencing spell muffled her sounds, as if something was stuffed in her mouth.

The sudden immobility took her by surprise visibly. Her eyes widened as she looked up to Emilia with a silent surprised scream. She bent her spine which pushed up her ribcage, she wiggled with her feet and tried to writhe out of her ties, but it was completely futile. Emilia released her immediately but couldn't hide her grin.

“So that is your victory?”, Emilia giggled.

Sally struggled to regain her composure while rubbing her arms and legs. Her knees seemed weak when she got up.

“Holy crap”, she panted.

“Holy fucking crap”.

“SHIT”

Some of the other students laughed around them. It seemed like they had just waited for Emilia to destroy Sally. Emilia didn't pay attention to them.

“Are you okay?”, she asked, although she couldn't stop laughing. Her face when she lay below her, writhing while realizing how little chance she stood had just been too funny. To her relief Sally laughed as well, although she seemed a bit huffy.

“I'm… I'm good. Holy shit that was… I would have imagined it differently!”

“Uhm… you mean -”, Emilia started.

“This… bondage spell… I didn't think it felt like… uhm”, Sally struggled to find words to describe it.

“What? No one ever attempted to beat you in duels with bondage so far? I've had at least 10 people try it in class alone!”, Emilia said in disbelief.

Suddenly Sally went red. She remembered those times when their class bullied Emilia. She even remembered the instances where people in their class tried the bondage spells.

One time they succeeded, and Emilia was left on the floor helplessly with random spells shaking her body. In a few minutes more and more bullies had used the opportunity to make her suffer all those spells they never were able to make her endure before.

Sally had been sitting on her desk, she hadn't attempted any spell but she also hadn't even thought about helping her. In fact, no one had. Out of the 25 students in class, not a single one even attempted to step in. They all had either watched and laughed, bullied, or were bullied themselves.

More and more pupils had gathered around Emilia, and the spells had become crueller and crueller. Sally had looked at Emilia from the corner of her eye, watching her face and body closely. Emilia had tried to be very silent and not show any emotions, probably to not give them the satisfaction they had wanted, but in the end a tickling spell eventually broke her.

After only one second she had been laughing hysterically, writhing in any way she possibly could between the legs of two benches and with the little movement her ties gave her, trying to scream at the top of her lungs between her laughter. Although she laughed, her face was distorted, as if she had been in severe pain.

Sally remembered how she had laughed herself, how she even made fun of Emilia for breaking afterwards. She remembered the cheering crowd…

But now, right in this moment, Sally had experienced bondage herself. And although the experience had been very quick, just imagining not being released by Emilia, with people around her who would do anything to hurt her made her stomach twist.

She felt guilty, she should have done something. Emilia had been a very good friend. During their entire fights she helped her and made sure she wasn't frustrated. Sally’s magic was way worse than Emilia’s, but Emilia made sure she had fun and managed to make her laugh numerous times despite her loosing every single duel – and what had SHE done?

“Emilia, I...”

Emilia laughed. “Its ok, you weren't really part of it anyway. I'm not mad if that is your concern, otherwise this fight would have ended differently.”

Sally smiled shyly. “Im sorry. I… should have...”

“Hey, stop it! Its fine, I promise.”

Emilia meant it. She wasn't mad, she knew what people had done to her, but she also knew how Sally helped her.

“Lets keep fighting, okay?”

Emilia leaned forward, with her face centimetres away from Sally’s.

“Because destroying you, was super fun”, Emilia teased, and the sparkle in her dark eyes made Sally shiver, although she had to admit, it was in a good way.

Sally tried to answered with a stern look but couldn't help herself and smiled. Yes, it was fun for her to duel Emilia as well.

They continued, and Emilia stopped herself a few times to wreck her friend again. Explaining her magic to Sally and giving her tips gave Emilia a perspective she never got from books.

When Sam ended the lesson Emilia knew, joining was a good idea. She felt isolated in the group, just how she had feared, but she still enjoyed the time.


	5. Chapter 5

Emilia and Sally had lots of things to talk about this evening. They sat on her bed again and talked about the spells, about Sally's non verbal skills and all sorts of other things.

Suddenly Sally turned pretty silent.

“What?”, Emilia asked.

“Im sorry. I… I should have helped you!”, she said quietly and lowered her head.

“You did help me? I mean, without you I still wouldn't talk to anyone. It would still be pretty lonely that way!”

“Not what I mean… I made fun of you too Emilia. Like everyone else.”

She was visibly sorry.

Emilia didn't know what to say. This entire conversation was very uncomfortable to her.

“Do you remember that one time?” Sally whispered. “When… when Steward caught you with his bondage curse? I...”

Sally stopped talking, searching for words.

“Well, lets be honest, its hard to forget”, Emilia said after a short time of silence.

“Your spell today was so quick Emilia, I hardly remember it. But it must have been so … awful when they cornered you. I cant imagine this tickle spell while being tied and…” Sally seemed genuinely concerned, but she didn't know what to say. She couldn't undo it, she could just apologize.

“It wasn't so bad”, Emilia almost answered, decided against it however. She didn't want to lie.

“Well”, she started, “I guess it was, actually, pretty awful…”

“I laughed at you Emilia. I laughed when you… when your… when they broke you.”

“I don't blame you Sally! THEY tortured me, not you!”

Tortured. Sally looked up. She hadn't really thought about it, but Emilia's choice of words sank in. Yes, they had. They cornered her, tied her up and made her suffer any way possible. Her bullies had tortured her, and the entire class had watched.

Sally remembered the few instances she was tickled as pretty tough. Usually it just had been friends who poked her ribs and sides though, nothing comparable to what they had done to Emilia. And even THAT already was hard.

Emilia didn't like where this conversation headed. She wanted to have a good time with Sally, and not talk about her past. The memory of her torment was still very vivid. It was one of her worst memories.

After a teacher had intervened she had fled into a bathroom stall and cried, wrapping her arms around her torso and rubbing the parts of her hands where the ropes had cut into. She had cried, and cried, and cried; the tears didn't stop and she had been shaking uncontrollably. Never had she felt so violated before.

The tickling hands from the spell had been all over her, playing with her ribs, squeezing her thighs, slipping under her armpits and through her shoes to her feet, and no matter how much she had turned and twisted, there had been no escape.

Even after she had been in the stall for a long time, she still had felt them on her body despite her own arms that were tightly wrapped around her. The feeling had been so cruel, she had screamed so loud her own ears had hurt while her laughter had seemed to come out of no where, as if it was ripped out of her.

After 3 hours, when she had left the stall again, she had made a promise to herself to get better at fighting and to never be overpowered like that again.

“I mean, you didn't join, did you?” Emilia asked. She just assumed she didn't, but overall she wasn't sure. There had been too many people and too many spells, she never knew who had casted which spell, which made it even worse.

“No, no I didn't, I swear”, Sally said.

Emilia forced a grin, trying to chase away the memories.

“Oh that's a pity”, she said.

Sally looked at her confusedly.

“I mean,”, Emilia explained, “That would have been the first thing I would have made you “practice” defending next time”.

Her grin became even wider as Sally's mouth opened.

“I uhm...”, Sally started, not sure what to answer. There was this sparkle in Emilia's eyes again.

Emilia laughed.”Don't worry about it. Its over, okay?”

Sally seemed pleased now, or at least Emilia hoped so. She didn't know what she would have said if Sally had tortured her too, but it didn't matter now. Emilia wanted to forget it and move on.

They continued talking for a bit until Emilia went to her bed. Her thoughts circled around this day.

She thought about the fighting and the group, trying to push away the memories about that tickle spell in class.

She thought about Sally being her best friend, about Sally all tied up, Sally's blonde hair strand when she was exhausted. She thought about herself being tormented in class again, Sally's red cheeks after fighting, Sally tied up, herself being tormented in class, the way Sally flipped her around cheekily, Sally tied up, her hair strand, Sally tied up and her wide eyes when she realized her situation, how she writhed, the muffled scream, the ropes around Sally's chest, her blue, big eyes -

Emilia hadn't realized how her breath became quicker. The image of Sally laying helplessly in front of her seemed to be permanently burned into her head.

Emilia had never realized how beautiful Sally was – her round hip that moved up and down as she tried to roll over, the delicate features on her shoulders and neck that stood out due to her arms being forced back, her round breasts that were beautifully framed by the rope, her ribcage that stood out in the unnatural position, and how her chest pushed against the tight ropes to breath. She remembered how her movement made her shirt slip up a bit, revealing a small part of her belly.

Emilia's head was dizzy. She wanted to see it again. She wanted to hear her muffled sounds, trying to form words. She wanted to see how Sally arched her back, pushing up her breasts in her attempts to move. She wanted to see how she tried to resist, how she twisted and turned, how her eyes begged her to stop and release her – and she wanted to do the exact opposite. She wanted to continue with… whatever this was.

Emilia's hand wandered between her legs. She was dripping wet. She wondered how it had felt for Sally. When she was tied up in class it was quite a shock. She had seen many images of people being tied up, mainly from cartoons as a child or action and horror movies, but it looked so different to what it felt like.

She remembered how her arms suddenly had been locked to her upper body, how her legs were rendered useless and how the ropes wrapped around her as if they would hug her. She hadn't even been able to roll on her stomach. If Sally could have rolled over? Maybe, if she had pushed with her legs. Emilia thought she could have kneeled next to her, she could have pulled up her thin shirt even further.

Was Sally ticklish? She didn't know. Maybe her sides were, she was in the perfect position to tickle her sides. How soft her skin would feel like, if she just circled her fingertips on her sides?

The ropes would have stopped her from pulling the shirt over her breasts, but if she removed that rope -

It took Emilia's entire willpower to not moan as a wave of pleasure shot threw her. She had masturbated in bathroom stalls before, but this now was different. With a few more circling motions on her clit she started trembling. She put one hand over her mouth to silence herself otherwise she probably would have screamed when the orgasm hit her. ‘What would it feel like if it was Sally's hand?’

“God, what is she doing to me”, she thought after the last wave subsided. She tried to keep her breath slow and silent. Sally was sleeping already but Emilia feared she would wake her up.

Emilia's head was empty all of a sudden, although she still couldn't get rid of the image of Sally in front of her. For a few minutes Emilia watched the moonlight shining through her window until she fell asleep as well.


	6. Chapter 6

Emilia woke up with a pretty bad headache the next morning. After all the unusual excitement she had been really tired. Sally already had left to the bathroom, and Emilia hurried to get dressed for her first lesson.

There was no time for showering left, so she quickly brushed her teeth and ran to her classroom. She even had missed breakfast – but since she usually ate way too little anyway it wasn't a big deal. Still, she planned to eat more during lunch break. Having always been on the lower end of the scale she didn't want to loose even more weight.

“Want to sit with me?”, Sally asked her as she entered the classroom.

“I, uh”, Emilia hesitated. “If the others don't mind….”.

Sally usually sat with her friends, and Emilia never dared to intrude.

Sally rolled her eyes and shoved her towards an empty desk next to hers. She had switched orders with Clarissa to make room for her. Clarissa was one of Sally's close friends. She had medium length, dark and very wavy hair, and her pale face was covered in small freckles. Emilia had always though that she was one of the most beautiful girls in class – now that she thought about it though she wasn't as beautiful as Sally – Emilia could have slapped her head at this dumb thought.

Clarissa at least didn't seem to mind the new girl in the group, although she looked at Emilia with a raised eyebrow.

When McGonagall entered the classroom she took notes of the changed seating arrangement, but didn't seem to mind. In fact, Emilia could have sworn she saw a quick smile on her face – McGonagall was one of those teachers who had always been worried about her.

Emilia still couldn't comprehend what had happened. Within a few days that girl she used to talk with in the evening had become one of the closest people she had ever had for probably all her life.

Even as a child Emilia didn't have many close friends. She had always been very quiet and reserved, only wanted to wear black, especially black dresses, and she was never interested in playing as actively as other kids.

People had told her that it wasn't right of her to sit around, that she had to be wild, that she had to jump and run around as a child, because ‘that is what children are supposed to do’. Stubborn as she was, Emilia started to hate it even more and did the exact opposite. Sometimes she sat at a table for hours while drawing only to prove a point.

Emilia's parents were both Wizards, but she was raised in a muggle neighbourhood, visited Muggle elementary schools and kindergartens, played with muggle toys… her parents weren't averse to the wizard world, they read lots of wizard books to her as well, showed her wizard-only villages and events, but they always seemed to be drawn to muggles.

Emilia had learned very early that the wizard world didn't appreciate what her parents did in the slightest, but since her father was involved with muggles in his job the families connection to muggles seemed natural.

Emilia accepted the muggle world more than her parents could have dreamed of. She started to be interested in science, wanted to know more about muggles history and in the end grew up like other muggleborns in Hogwarts. She had been able to control some of her magical powers already when the letter came, but she was still split about the fact that she was actually a witch.

Just liker her friends who all went to middle school, she wanted to learn more about chemistry, biology, and physics. But she also wanted to be able to cast spells. To have her own wand and a broom.

The day before joining Hogwarts she had cried herself to sleep in her parents bed, contemplating whether she wanted to stay with the few people she knew although she wouldn't belong, or whether she hoped she would finally fit in in a world she felt alien to.

Her parents blamed themselves, worrying that they had involved her too much into the muggle world. Until this day they still sent Emilia books about science, history, and all sorts of things her parents found.

Due to her interest, her father started to study some muggle science himself, and whatever he found interesting he made sure to send it to his daughter. Overall, owning or reading muggle books wasn't forbidden, but also not viewed favourably.

Emilia made sure to send back every book before another arrived, which wasn't an issue, since she usually binged through them in a few days.

~

McGongalls lesson ended, and Emilia, Sally and Clarissa headed to Snapes classroom.

Just like usually, Emilia had finished her potion way earlier than the rest of the class. It had surprised her how a bit of knowledge about chemistry had helped her in the lessons. Sometimes she wondered if Snape knew much about chemistry, and that lots of things he taught didn't only base on magic, but sometimes could also be explained by muggle sciences.

Emilia spent the remaining time helping Sally with her potion, although she had to admit, that she wasn't particularly helpful today as she spent most of her time looking at her. She wondered what had happened, Sally looked so… different. Her smile alone made Emilia's heart race.

“No, no no, you are a god damn idiot”, Emilia thought to herself. She was just not used to having a friend, that was all.

Emilia was glad when Snape ended the lesson and she could stop staring at her friend like a creep. Also, after skipping breakfast, she felt hungry. She followed Sally and Clarissa into the main hall. Both of them were very occupied discussing various things, from rumours to subjects.

Emilia hesitated a little when the two girls sat down, looking around for free places, but then finally sat down next to Clarissa. She now faced Sally who shook her head and smiled. She had told Emilia many times that she wasn't hated by others (anymore) and that she could sit down with her, but Emilia was never really sure.

“I see you warm up a little”, Clarissa smiled and turned towards her, “Its cool to see you being a little more outgoing now.”

Again Emilia didn't know what to say.

“Do you guys want to join next week? Ravenclaw was allowed a party in the basement, I'm sure it will be lots of fun!”, Clarissa said. “You can also bring a date”, she grinned.

Emilia immediately looked at Sally and felt how her face started to burn. A FRIEND, she tried to remember herself, but somehow she knew it was futile. She stared at her plate to distract herself, she had wanted to eat more anyway.

“Funny”, Sally said sarcastically, “Not after the disaster with Oscar – I pass!”

Oscar was Sally's ex. Their relationship was very quick, had seemed to be very intense and most importantly – had ended in a massive argument. Emilia had to admit though that she didn't only know barely any details, she had also never cared.

“Okay okay”, Clarissa laughed, “Understandable, only you two then, right?”

“Sure, have you even been to one of Ravenclaws parties yet?”, Sally asked Emilia.

“No”, she answered.

“I… never was invited”, Emilia added and looked back at her plate.

“Well now you are!”, Sally said. Her eyes were glowing in anticipation.

“Its lots of fun, there's a small buffet usually, butterbeer and music. Everyone from third grade and higher can come”, Clarissa explained.

“Is there something like… a motto? Or anything else I need to know?”, Emilia wondered.

“No, at least not that I know.”, Clarissa said.

Both continued eating, and Emilia didn't know how to continue the conversation either. She couldn't really believe what was happening. It was all too quick for her, she was almost scared.

~~

This day had probably been one of the least productive ones Emilia had had in a long time. She had no issues following the lessons, but she kept drifting off with her thoughts over and over again. When the last lesson was over Emilia was glad she could finally get some time alone to sort her thoughts.

  
“Do you want to go into the common room with us Emilia? We will do our homework together until dinner.”, Clarissa asked.

“Oh, no thanks, I uhm… I already made it, and I still want to take a shower.”, Emilia answered. She was glad Clarissa had asked, and turning down the offer made her pretty sad, but she was tired and wanted nothing more than some time of her own.

“But, thanks Clarissa, maybe another time!”

“Oh yeah, no worries!”

At least Clarissa didn't seem mad. Emilia could never tell if people really wanted her to join or if it was just a pity-offer. Sally and Clarissa left to the common room, while Emilia headed the other direction.


	7. Chapter 7

There were a lot bathrooms all around Hogwarts, many of them usually occupied, but especially after the last lessons, when most students were either doing their homework or extracurriculars the bathrooms usually were pretty empty.

One of the bathrooms was especially empty, it was the one furthest away from all common rooms, it only had 2 stalls per gender and was also one of the least liked by students as it had no windows and was usually pretty dark and old. The bathroom was cleaned well though, so Emilia didn't mind going there.

When she opened the door the entire room was empty. She entered the girls section, placed her bag on one of the shelves and searched for her vanity bag.

The sudden silence after the quiet day was welcome. The bathroom floor and the walls was covered in light tiles. There were two small sinks with a tiny mirror each on the wall, which probably was one of the reason why most girls didn't like that bathroom.A door separated the stalls from the sinks to keep the dressing room dry when the showers were running. In the shower room two small stalls were separated by a thin wall, and only the two dark, wooden doors stood out from the very bright design.

Emilia actually liked that bathroom a lot, although she had to admit that it looked very old. There were no bathtubs like in some of the new bathrooms, there were no big mirrors, no window, and the light was crappy. Also, that there were only two stalls indeed wasn't too convenient, if more students regularly used it it was a gamble whether you could shower or not.

Emilia suspected it was one of the oldest bathrooms available in Hogwarts, when there weren't as many students and a bunch of such small bathrooms were sufficient.

Emilia entered the first stall, placed her shampoo on a sill in the wall and turned on the shower. The shower head was so small, it might also have been a pipe.

Emilia didn't mind. The water was soothing and for many minutes she just stood there and relaxed. The room filled with fog, and after some time she was deeply submerged in her own thoughts.

How the party Clarissa invited her to was going to be? What would she do there? She didn't want to annoy Clarissa or Sally, she was sure they would not want her to follow them all the time but she didn't know anyone else enough.

What would she do at a party generally? Dancing? Emilia couldn't dance, and also didn't want to. She had no sense for rhythm and was also really REALLY bad at it. Usually she just stood around and didn't know if she should move her arm or her leg next, and then gave up after just a few seconds.

Emilia sighed. She didn't want to admit it but she was scared. She started playing with the little water drops that flowed down the tiles and drew small circles, stars and other things in them, until she turned around and -

“OH MY GOD”, Emilia jerked back and almost slipped on the wet tiles. Sally's face was right in front of her, looking at her with a wide grin.

“I.. SALLY??”

“Sorry”, Sally said, “I didn't want to scare you. You left your stall open a little, thought I should tell you.”

Emilia was completely frozen and caught off guard. Her vision got dizzy as she looked at Sally. She wore nothing but a small, thin towel that was loosely wrapped around her upper body. Sally held it on one side of her chest with her hand, while it almost slipped down on the other, revealing the upper part of her right boob. She leaned casually on the door frame, her head was tilted to the side just a little and she smiled cheekily.

“I was just about to shower too.”, she said.

“I...”, Emilia struggled to form basic sentences at that point. “I thought you were doing your homework?”

“Yeah I did, but I couldn't concentrate so I thought I will finish it tomorrow. Also, I ate enough for lunch, I don't want dinner.”

With these words she closed the door and headed to the other stall.

When Sally turned on the shower head on her side, Emilia hadn't even moved yet. She was sure she had closed the door before. Sally must have opened it from the outside with a spell. It shouldn't work in bathrooms when someone was in the stall, but in this one apparently it was possible to open the doors with magic. Probably because it was so old, no one ever cared about it when the prevention had stopped working.

But why on earth would she do that? Was it a prank? Was she mocking her? Maybe she wasn't her friend at all in the end – no. Emilia brushed that thought away quickly. She had lived in fear long enough, she wouldn't destroy their friendship because of her own, stupid self-doubt.

Emilia looked at the wall separating her from her best friend. Sally was over there, showering, and naked. They had showered in stalls next to each other a bunch of times, but THAT thought had never crossed Emilia's mind. Emilia wondered how she looked like, how the water flowed over her friends body…

Right in that moment she saw it – the pattern in the small drops on the wall. It was delicate, very loose, but also nothing she could deny if she wanted to take her divination seriously. The pattern screamed “change”, but there was something else in it. “Lust”.

Emilia buried her face in her hands. Her cheeks started to burn and her heart raced.

“No no no”, she thought. “This isn't true Emilia, no”.

But she couldn't deny it. She had crushed on her. Emilia had a crush on her best, and also female friend. It took all her strength to not start crying, and she didn't even know why.

It all made sense, the warm feeling when she was around her, the way she had to look at Sally's face, at Sally's body, how Sally stood out from the other students…

After half an eternity Sally shut the water again and left her stall. The room was completely filled in fog now, and Emilia felt a cold breeze on her skin as Sally exited the shower room.

Emilia waited for a few minutes, not sure if Sally had already left. She tried to check her face in the metal shower head, but couldn't really make out how red she still was. She felt trapped in the stall, not knowing whether she wanted to leave and risk, maybe even hope, Sally was still there, or if she wanted to wait longer. Her thoughts circled as time passed.

Slowly she was getting cold, Emilia had forgotten to turn on the water again. Should she turn it back on now? No, if Sally was still there that would be awkward. If it was more awkward than staying in the shower with the water turned off though…

“Are you okay in there? Do you need something or are you finished?”, Sally shouted from the other side of the room.

“Fuck”, Emilia thought. So she was still there. Was she… waiting?

“Uhm..”, Emilia said with a cracking voice. “No I'm good. I.. I'm finished now”

She wrapped her towel tightly around her body and left the stall. It took her about three attempts to finally open the door to the dressing room.

Sally was already dressed  and stood next to the door, facing the wall . She wore her black uniform skirt and  it looked like she  was just closing her blouse. She even wore her shoes already. Not really sure what to do Emilia headed to her  part of the shelve and put her shampoo back into her vanity bag.

“You know Emilia, I think its really cute how shy you are, although you play so tough all the time”, Sally said and turned around.

Emilia almost dropped her bag. Sally was  completely  dressed, yes, but her blouse  was only half closed from the bottom yet.  M ost importantly  though , she  didn't wear a bra. 

Emilia froze and couldn't help herself but stare at Sally's boobs that pushed the blouse open .  If Emilia could have taken her eyes away from Sally's hard nipples she would have seen her smile.

Sally giggled, and her breasts slightly bounced with her movement.

Emilia wasn't sure if her feet could carry her with all the hormones that rushed through her all at once. Sally's breasts looked so soft, Emilia had to fight the urge to just grab them.

S ally started to close the buttons very slowly and moved towards  Emilia , until she stood only a few centimetres away from her friend.

“I just wanted to give you a little more inspiration for your nightly activities, that's all!”, she whispered.

“What.. do you – OH”, Emilia stuttered.

The blood shot right in her face and she feared to loose her balance.

“I uhm...”, she didn't know where to start, or what she even wanted to say. Sally laughed.

“Don't worry, I wont tell anyone that you masturbate to me being tied up, I just thought I’d help you out a little.”

Sally's face was so close to Emilia's now that she could feel her breath on her glowing cheek.

“You uhm… I, no, Sally, I didn't -”

“Oh come on, don't even pretend! You are so inexperienced with… everything, its so cute! I could teach you so many things.” 

Sally  grinned, grabbed Emilia's chin and whispered into her ear. “I saw how you looked at me when you realized how much you had tied me up, and how  looked at me when I struggled against  your ties .  Or how you looked at me when I talked about it  in the evening .”

If Sally hadn't held her Emilia would have dropped to the floor already.

“Admit it – you liked it, and I bet you want more!”

Sally's last words were barely audible. She kissed her neck and Emilia shrieked at the tickling sensation. Then Sally turned around and left the bathroom before Emilia could even say anything.

It took Emilia a while to let the entire situation sink in. She  dropped on the floor, still only covered in her towel. The shame grew in her  and tears gathered in her eyes. She wondered where they even came from.

Sally  had  heard her. How much had she heard? Had she really been so loud  yesterday evening ?  This entire day was a nightmare. She would have to go back to Sally, be with her in one room, sleep next to her… she wasn't sure if she could ever look her in the eyes again.

She should have stayed alone,  without friends . She shouldn't have started to accept the conversations with Sally, shouldn't have joined the group. Was it too late to go back? She surely would miss  it…

Slowly Emilia stood up again. She was shaking  and  wanted to cry, but she needed to go back to the common room as it was getting late.

Emilia grabbed her clothes and got dressed. She  had spent so long on the floor, even her hair was dry already.  For a second she stopped before closing her bra and looked into the small mirror above the sink. 

Her breasts were much smaller than Sally's. Emilia estimated Sally's breasts to be at least C sized, hers however were barely B. Just like Sally had, she tried to  separate her blouse with her boobs, but they couldn't hold it open. Big breasts had never been a turn on for her, but she had to lie to say she wasn't a bit jealous of Sally.

Emilia took a deep breath, closed the blouse and left the bathroom. The hallways were empty and she hurried to get back to the common room. She answered the question without really thinking about it and headed to her dorm.


	8. Chapter 8

“Hey, Emilia!”, Sally had suddenly appeared out of a crowd of students.

“Clarissa and I were playing chess, want to join?”, she asked and put her arm around Emilia's shoulders, blocking her way to the dorm. 

Sally smiled innocently as if nothing had happened. Her blonde hair was now tied back in a ponytail, with the exception of a few strands she seemed to have missed. Emilia's face turned red instantly again. She could have looked at her for ages, and it kept hitting her how beautiful her friend was. There were tiny, almost invisible freckles under Sally's eyes which she had never seen before until now.

“We just finished our game, do you like chess?”, Sally asked.

“I, uhm, well, we are 3 people, how would we play?”, Emilia stuttered.

“Don't worry, I will play with Clarissa, I want a chance against you in case you are as smart in chess as you are in class.”, Sally laughed.

Emilia paused for a moment, but deep down she knew she didn't want to leave. She liked chess, and had played against herself a lot. She had also watched many other students,  but she had never played with others. She also had to admit that, although she liked it, playing against herself didn't help her learn it in the slightest.  


“Yeah, why not...”, she said reluctantly.

Sally dragged her through the crowd to a small table in the back of the room. Clarissa  sat on one of the couches around it and waited .  The chess board was already prepared on the table.

“Hi Emilia, did you run a marathon or why do you look like a tomato?”, she laughed.

“Uh, no, but I just showered.”

Emilia didn't know if that was a suitable explanation, but since her skin usually did look irritated after showering it  might as well  have  be en true.

She sat down facing Sally and Clarissa.

“How good are you?”, Clarissa asked, already playing the first move. “Oh, are you okay with us being white and you black?”

“Yeah sure, uhm, honestly I don't really know how good I am, I usually play against myself or, well, watch...”

Sally smiled.

“Doesn't matter, maybe there's still a few things even I have to _teach_ you.”

I f the redness in Emilia's face had disappeared a little, now it sure as hell was back again.

“Well, I guess…”, she said, distracting herself with her own move.

“What do you do, like, in your free time?”, Clarissa asked. “Not to be rude, but there's many… rumours, and I just want to know what's true.”

“Uhm,…”, Emilia started, “I read a lot, or practice my spells. I keep a list of the things I want to do further research about, usually because I stumbled upon them, and when I am not sure what to study I pick a few of them and search books about the topic.”

The game continued, and Emilia realized quickly that the two girls were very good.

“You really do study a lot. Is that all you do? No other hobbies?”, Clarissa wondered.

“No, not really. I walk around Hogwarts and in the forest a lot though and keep an astronomy diary if that counts though.”

“Astronomy? Like the one Trelawney showed us? Are you like… into divination?”

Clarissa and Sally started whispering and pointing at the chess board, probably evaluating what Emilia's strategy could be.

Emilia bit her lip,  in the end, divination was one of the least favoured subjects in Ravenclaw, and she didn't want to start a discussion.

“No”, she said when Sally and Clarissa had stopped whispering. “Its more focused on our astronomy lessons. The one Trelawney had was about Astrology.”  
That was, at least, true. She always thought Trelawney’s divination techniques were… questionable, but had also seen them succeed in various instances. She judged the likelihood of them having been by pure chance as low, so although her techniques seemed odd to Emilia, she approved them as legitimate.

“Aren't you scared in the forbidden forest? I mean, that can get you in quite some trouble.”, Sally wondered, while placing the next move. As if she wanted to make a point, it was a quite threatening one for Emilia. It was hard for her to focus with Sally opposite to her.

“No, not really. I have my protection, and I know how to fight almost all of the creatures in the forest.”, Emilia answered.

“Yeah I could have guessed that it doesn't scare you to go there, but why do you even go in there? Other than it being forbidden, I don't know what would draw me to the forest at all...”, Clarissa remarked.

“Its quiet there, and a lot of charms and spells need moonlight, it makes them work better sometimes. Nature also is great place for rituals, my mind is way more free then.”

Clarissa didn't seem contempt.

“How do you think I was able to curse some people so subtly when they annoyed me? It wasn't a direct curse, many were rituals.”, Emilia added.

“So, these things… they really work that well?”, Sally chimed in.

“They are hard to control and take lots of persistence and willpower, that's for sure, but they work. There's way better, stronger and direct ways to achieve the same goal sometimes, often potions, direct curses or other things, but if you want to be subtle they are perfect. They are completely neglected in school though, that is true… probably because they had such a deep connection to religions”

“Well”, Clarissa said, “Lots of things are. I asked teachers a lot when we will learn something specific, but sometimes they admit that these are areas we have to do research of our own. They can’t teach us everything.”

“What kind of rituals do you do?”, Sally asked.

“Mainly those who are self-centred, often times one for enhanced concentration, better sleep or inner calm. But I've tried many so far...”

“If I win this game, will you show me one?”, Sally leaned forward and grinned.

“Uhm… I mean” 

Emilia wasn't really sure if that was such a good idea. “How often have you been in the forest so far?”

“Well, I stepped one foot in and decided ‘fuck this’ and then left… so basically 0”

Clarissa laughed. “ Y ou do you, but I am not a fan of this… ritual stuff. Given that it works of course but  yeah, you do you Emilia”

Typical Ravenclaw, Emilia thought. As much as she liked her house, sometimes the students could be a little annoying in their stubbornness. She had to admit, she didn't know exactly how much of those rituals wasn't placebo, but they were exciting. And since her first trials were because of pure scepticism, she  suspected that they did at least something.

She had left out one thing though – that they were also quite questionable if you REALLY could control them. As far as she had understood, you could temper with peoples mere character, and make them a different person for at least a short amount of time.

Emilia looked at the board. It looked pretty even, so if she focused on it a little more, maybe she had a chance?

“Alright”, Emilia said. “Deal! If you win, I’ll show you one.”

And suddenly Sally's moves were different, as if she could look into Emilia's head and predict every single tactic and every single move. It didn't take long and she knew, Sally had won the game.

“I cant believe you would have let me win without our deal”, Emilia laughed after admitting her defeat.

Sally seemed a bit too pleased with herself for Emilia's taste.

“Noooo don't worry, I would still have destroyed you as late in the game as possible”, Sally teased.

‘Just wait until our next lesson’ Emilia thought.

“Do you stand by your word?”, Sally asked.

“Of course I do, but as far as I understood, _I _am the one to decide on the ritual.”, she grinned. “Dont worry”, Emilia added quickly. “I wont hurt you, but it will be looots of fun”

“Im just gonna trust you, but no evil tricks”, Sally said, and if it wasn't for the sparkle of excitement in her eyes Emilia would have feared she wouldn't have trusted her.


	9. Chapter 9

When Emilia closed the door to her dorm today her heart was beating very fast. She was both scared and excited to finally be alone with Sally after…

She looked up to her friend who sat on her bed as usual.

“You know, I never would have guessed YOU were interested in such unscientific things as … rituals.”, she started.

“Well”, Emilia searched for the right words. She had never explained much of this to anyone.

“The thing is, that you have to take it by what it is, not by what people want it to be.”

Sally waited for further clarification, so Emilia sat down next to her.

“You can not… resurrect people from the dead how some want you to believe, through a ritual. You can also not make everything and anything happen through a ritual – as I said, its effect is limited. Just a very small mood enhancing charm is extremely hard. BUT, once you manage to get it right, its undetectable and also almost unbreakable without other forms of rituals. The common explanation is that everything in the universe is somehow connected, and that your magical observations in rituals can alter current circumstances, simply by you observing.”

Emilia made a short break.

“Of course there's a big religious aspect to it. People have used it as forms of punishment, to inflict pain, humiliation and misfortune on others, or they even did so on people during the rituals. But I can tell you, bringing others, say, misfortune for months or even years is extremely hard, if not impossible. You also don't have to harm anyone in a rituals, although it is true that all of them need to contain a certain amount of pleasure and pain – that can also just be a small pinch in the arm though while drinking a tea you like.”

“Do you… believe in any of those religions?”, Sally asked.

“No”, Emilia answered without hesitation. “I never really cared for that. Overall I can only observe the world, but I don't see how I ever will be capable of determining what exactly this universe is made of. I only know my own mind.”

There was a small break again. Suddenly Sally smiled.  
“What else do you do… research about? If you aren't scared by the stigma even those rituals have…  you said you had many interests before.  I'm sure that didn't mean… school subjects. ”

Emilia looked at her for a few seconds. Could she dare it? She didn't know where her trust in that girl came from, but she stood up and gathered a book from her bedside table. She lay it on the bed in between her and Sally.

“That… that is a third grade schoolbook? I don't understa- WHAT?”

With a small tap of Emilia's finger the book suddenly changed  its  cover. 

“What does the title say Emilia? Particle Physics– what on earth is that supposed to mean?”

Emilia laughed. “Do you know that muggles think  that everything is build with extremely tiny particles – or waves?”

Sally looked at her confusedly. “I… uhm… I heard there's something like atoms, but more than that… wait, do you read books about MUGGLE sciences?”

“Yeah, I do. They are pretty interesting, and honestly, I think there's much you can learn from it.”

“Do you… do you think its true what muggles believe about… science?”

“I think it works. That's it. It has to, otherwise their planes wouldn't fly, their electricity wouldn't light any lightbulbs and their medicine wouldn't allow them to treat diseases. They have things called X-Ray, and MRTs – they can look into their bodies without magic or cutting them open! I've been in one, it was quite fascinating.”

Sally was silent for a while.

“I … I have to say, I didn't know that. How did you get into this? I mean, you aren't even muggleborn?”, she wondered.

“My parents work with muggles, they help, well, squibs to find their way into the muggle society. They helped a girl my age when I was 10. Instead of going to Hogwarts she went to middle school and had a proper education with the help of my father. So of course he needs to know a lot about muggle society and could teach me many things.”

“I see…”, Sally said. “Are you still in contact with her?”

Emilia smiled. “I barely had any, but my father still has. He is in contact with many mug- uh squibs he helped.”

Sally seemed to be deep in her thoughts. It wasn't new to Emilia that wizards didn't care about muggles, and that they looked down upon them. She also knew that they usually didn't think about what happened to  what they called squibs – unless one of their relatives was one, and even then they often ceased contact  as they didn't accept it  and were ashamed .

“Most wizards I have talked to never cared about that.” Emilia added. “They pray for their own child to be a wizard as well whenever the topic comes up, but never imagine or prepare for their child if they actually are a muggle.” 

“You call squibs muggle?”

“Yes. My father says that's just what they are. Wizardborns without magical abilities are muggles just the same way muggleborn wizards are still wizards.”

Emilia knew that sentence by heart – her mother had told her so many times when she asked questions about her fathers job.

“I guess… but, YOU were prepared if your child was one, right?”

“Technically but I… well, children are none of my concern.”

“Oh, you don't want children?”, Sally looked surprised.

“Yeah uhm… no. I don't.”, Emilia took her book and stood up, looking very defensive all of a sudden.

“Its very late already”, she said. “I think its better we sleep now.”

Sally watched her shutting the light and going to bed.

“Yeah, maybe. Good night Emilia”, Sally said.

“Good night”

While laying in her bed Emilia felt a bit overwhelmed. She never dared to bring up her views on muggles in front of others, and she was glad Sally had reacted that way. She could just hope it wouldn't backfire.

After this day their nightly talk wasn't as awkward as Emilia had feared though – although Emilia wasn't too sure if she  shouldn't also a bit disappointed  that Sally didn't even bring it up again …

~

“Emilia?”, Sally stopped her when she was about to leave to the bathrooms next morning.

“Yes?”, she turned around, the doorknob already in her hand.

“You went to bed so quickly yesterday. Was that question too personal? I'm sorry, its not my business so…”, Sally explained.

“Its alright”, Emilia smiled. “Its just nothing I want to discuss.”

“Don’t worry, I wont bring it up again! As I said, not my business.”


	10. Chapter 10

The days until their next lesson in the room of requirement seemed to be twice as long as usually. Emilia wasn't too sure if it was the sudden difference in how her days went by. She felt bad for all the time she could use for studying that she now spent having lunch and dinner with her new friend (she wasn't sure yet if Clarissa counted as a friend), and all the time she had with them in the common room. Her chess skills increased, that was for sure, but she still didn't feel comfortable with neglecting her studies. She needed to remind herself that she was already extremely advanced for her age – although  she also had to admit that her goal had never been being the best. She simply wanted to be good at the things she liked.

And of course, then there was also Sally who seemed to steal her thoughts more than just a few times. Sally hadn't mentioned the … incident in the bathroom again, so Emilia made sure to not mention it as well. She caught herself trying to avoid being alone with Sally, although, on the other hand she also sometimes tried her best to catch her alone.  None of this made sense…

~

Emilia had just tied her letter to a dark, brown owl as Sally entered the owl tower.

“For your parents?”, Sally asked.

“Yeah”, Emilia said, contemplating whether she should leave or stay.

“I write mine waaay too little, they always complain”, Sally laughed. She sat down on one of the small stone benches and started to push a letter into an a little bit too tiny envelope. Reluctantly Emilia sat down next to her. 

She looked out of the wide and open windows. Sally's hair moved with the small breeze that blew through the tower. The view from up here was even better than the one from the Ravenclaw common room. The mountains in the distance seemed to glow in the sun. It had snowed on them for the first time this year, and ever since that the temperature had fallen. The cold of the first snow from the mountains tips seemed to radiate even down to the castle. Autumn weather was officially over for this year – which wasn't surprising since there were only a few weeks left until Christmas.

“Do you remember the girl we talked about?”, She asked Sally to get rid of the awkward silence. “The one my father integrated into the muggle society?”

“I do.”, Sally said and smiled, still fighting with her letter.

“I owled him and asked about her. He said he is still in contact with her. Her name is Sarah”

“Oh, how is she?”

“Good”, Emilia paused for a moment. Was Sally even interested?

“She just graduated high school and will go to college next year.”, Emilia continued.

“Awe that's nice!”, Sally answered, the smile still on her lips.

She stood up and tied the now closed envelope to an owls leg.

“She’s technically not… special, you know Sally.”

Sally looked at her with questioning eyes.

“I only remember her so well because my father used to talk about her a lot when my own Hogwarts letter arrived. My father helped LOT’S of children like her.”, Emilia said.

“She wants to be an elementary school teacher, he wrote, and she was just accepted at college when my letter arrived.”

“Really? She must be happy!”, Sally turned around. Her smile was even brighter now.

‘God, I love that girl’, Emilia thought about her friends excitement over someone Sally would call a squib – brushing that thought away quickly in embarrassment. 

“You know Emilia, I always wanted to work with children too! But I fear I don't have the patience… I'm glad everything worked out for her!”

“Well...”, there was another short silence. 

“Her parents disowned her.”, Emilia finally said.

With loud, flapping wings, the owl flew away with Sally's letter. 

Sally seemed frozen for a moment and then turned around, her face showed both pity and shock. She sat down next to Emilia again. Suddenly the wind in the tower seemed cold and sharp.

“Not recently,”, Emilia explained. “They already had disowned her after she had contacted my father. Usually the parents contact the ministry, and the ministry contacts my father. Its a project he started himself and its one of the only ones existing in the world. There's another one in Japan, but besides that, muggles are completely on their own. Sarah’s case was a bit different though, she had contacted him alone.”

Sally now fully listened to her. Her eyes were fixed on Emilia.

“She wanted to be educated and live a normal life. There is a school in Scotland that teaches the muggle world to muggle-children, and when my father had secured a place for her her parents sat her in the next train that left London and never contacted her again. She was raised by a muggle foster family after being socialized, because her parents signed her up for adoption as soon as they kicked her out. Sarah hasn't seen them another time after she had been thrown out of the house for going to the school.”

“Thats… horrible”, Sally said almost silently. Her eyes were wide, Emilia wasn't sure if she saw small tears in their corners.

“It is, but… its also normal. She isn't _special_, as I said.”, Emilia answered and couldn't hide a sarcastic laugh.

“I've seen it numerous times – her fate of _only_ being disowned was a good one. One time my father had contacted a pure-blood family and gave them the option to let their muggle son be raised by muggles, so he could have an independent life one day. After he had left… the family beat him with a cane until his entire back was purple and nearly all his ribs broken. They killed him later the same night. Their sentence was not even half a year in Azkaban – on parole.”

If there hadn't been tears in Sally's eyes before, they were there now.

“I'm sorry, I didn't want to ruin your day”, Emilia said, looking on the floor. She really shouldn't have brought it up. There were another few minutes of silence.

“Sarah wants to be an elementary school teacher because she wants to teach her children all the things she had needed to know, but didn't.”, she said.

Sally  tried to smile .

“That's horrible”, she repeated again. “I'm glad she made that decision, she will be a really good teacher!”

Sally now looked at the floor with her.

“How many children does your father help… like, how many are out there?”, she asked silently.

“He usually gets a new case every 2 weeks, more during the summer months when the letters from the schools don't come.”

“How many are… abused?”

Judging by Sally's eyes  Emilia didn't have to answer. 

Sally put her hand on Emilia' s. ‘God, I love that girl’, the thought kept reoccurring no matter how much she silenced it. ‘She only wants to help others’  had been her first assessment about Sally when they had started talking. Only now she realized how right she was.

“Im glad you told me.”, Sally said. Emilia had never seen her so serious.

“You were right, we never talk about it. Not my family, not my friends. No one does. But you were right – she could be my child.”

When Sally had left the tower Emilia grabbed another sheet of paper. She wrote a second letter, tied it to an owls foot and watched the owl fly into the distance.


	11. Chapter 11

When Emilia walked up to the room of requirement for the second lesson she was almost as excited as for the first one.  The room looked the same it had last time, but since she was pretty early not many students were there already. Sally sat on one of the couches in the corner and waved at her.

“I wonder what we will learn today, did Sam say something last time?”, she said as Emilia approached her.

“No because he wanted to think about how to structure the course and wasn't sure yet.”

“I'm sure YOU already know how it works whatever he came up with.”, Sally said and brushed back her ponytail. For a short time Emilia's eyes wandered down her neck.

“Maybe. I guess you will find out”, Emilia grinned. “What? Do you want me to hold back?”, she added when she saw Sally's stern look.

“No!”, Sally declared. “I do not want you to hold back… despite our last duel.”

Emilia's cheeks probably blushed just by the thought. The image of her tied up friend was immediately  back  in her head – this time together with the image of Sally in the bathroom.

“I guess I have to help you step up your defence”, she answered, trying to not show any of her emotions.

Sally moved daringly close to Emilia  and put her left hand on her knee. She felt her fingers move a little. Emilia's leg started twitching, just like the corners of her mouth  and the soft touch sent shivers down her spine.

“Are you _sure _you want that?”, Sally whispered with a grin.

“Alright, please come to the centre everyone to discuss the lesson.”, Sam shouted, and Emilia sighed, relieved to get away from Sally's teasing. Sally might have the upper hand in controlling Emilia's emotions (Emilia wondered if Sally knew), but duels was Emilia's strength.

“Many of our lessons were focused on attacks and defence, but that is only a small part of strength as a wizard. I think its wise to increase our focus on other areas. I also think about changing this room in the future, to see how we can integrate different environments in our duels. We have to think about spells that can help us avoid a duel as well – such as invisibility, or perception and illusion charms. And maybe we have to think about our defence against certain creatures that could be dangerous for us one day, there's lots of things we still have to do.”

“Should we learn the forbidden curses?”, Jadie asked.

The room was very silent all of a sudden. Sam didn't look surprised – he seemed to have thought about it too.

“I have to admit, I don't know. _Imperio_ would be possible as long as everyone finds someone they really trust, but I don't see how _Crucio_ and _Avada Kedavra_ would be.”

“I heard Moody used a spider last year”, Robert said.

“We wont hurt any animals Robert??”, Angie, the girl Sally probably used to duel with, hissed.

“Oh come on Angie, as if you wouldn't step on them when they are in your bedroom. Just scream Avada Kedavra this time, not ‘SPIDER, SPIDER, pleeeease Robert, help me’”, he grinned.

Angie turned red  as the group laughed .

“How would we bring them in?”, Steward asked. “The room can’t summon food or water, if it could provide spiders they would probably be here already.”

“We fill some jars with as many as we can find in the dungeon, release them all at once and bet if Angie is the first one who can kill or not”, said a guy who had been silent the entire time with a small grin. He was incredibly thin but also small, and Emilia hadn't really recognized his presence so far.

“If you do that, Thomas, I will make YOU my first victim!”

Angies head was deep red by now. Emilia suspected she  wasn't a fan of spiders, and that she blushed easily – keeping in mind  how many times she could have blushed for Sally already she could only thank any theistic identity imaginable that it wasn't so easy  to make her blush .

“We will NOT fill the room with spiders, that's ridiculous. And we also wont torture any other animals with _Crucio. _We will train everything either on ourselves or on dummies!”, Sam intervened. He had to intervene quite a lot Emilia thought.

“Oh I think Robert wants to volunteer for _Crucio_ – isn't that right?”, Jodie teased.

“I beg you to try it Jodie! I bet you can’t even make me squirm a tiny bit!”, he hissed back.

Based on Jodie’s grin she was actually down to give it a shot.

“ENOUGH!”, Sam said.

“I will think about _Imperio_, but everything else we will not touch unless someone has a brilliant idea how to. I also don't want to encourage learning spells that are meant to kill and torture for the sake of it. We defend!”

“Its more about enduring it which we should consider training, rather than casting it”, Emilia said.

Everyone turned around. It was the first time she spoke in the group. The sudden silence in the room felt uncomfortable as everyone evaluated her input,  and judging by some faces, Emilia thought that they had come to the same conclusion.

“Emilia is right”, Sam said finally. “We aren't the Dark Lord or a Death Eater – we train to fight these people, and we train to resist their power. If we are caught we aren't the ones who cast it, we are the ones who suffer it.”

Another silence followed Sam's words.

“That doesn't mean knowing HOW to isn't of any use.”, Emilia added.

As the room  stayed silent she decided to continue speaking, although it felt really uncomfortable. It was like speaking up in class – her heart seemed to burst.

“Its easy to render someone defenceless through searing pain or agony, if you are hit and you don't know what it is, it makes it even harder to fight it.”

She waited a few seconds to see if someone would chime in, but nobody did. “All of you signed up for learning how to fight on a very VERY high level. This is what you need to anticipate if those lessons come to use one day.”

“Its easier to defend something if you know exactly how to cast it, too.”, she added. “If you know in which situations it might be a powerful move, you can avoid making that mistake. And if the _Cruciatus _hits you out of the blue from an enemy first time you are even more doomed than you are if it generally hits you.”

The air suddenly felt thick and sticky. Everyone knew, in case of a loss against death eaters, this was their fate. It had been an unspoken secret.

“Do you...”, Angie started “Can you cast one of the curses?”

“I trained _Imperio _on insects, just like Robert proposed, but I never wanted to use _Crucio _or _Avada Kedavra_. I casted _Crucio_ on a Dummy once and it felt like something happened, but if it would have hurt I obviously don't know.”

“This discussion doesn't lead anywhere.”, Sam finally said. “We will think about it, but we wont focus on it. Can we discuss todays lesson?”

“We will focus on petrification.”, he started explaining after no one complained.

“Rendering your opponent immobile can give you valuable seconds to escape. There's many of them – a full body immobility, petrification in one certain position, restricting movement in only a few body parts… depending on how you cast it it can have different effects. Of course we also will practice how to avoid it or get out of it once we are stuck – given we still have our wand, so no disarming spells today during practices.”

“This will be the first part. After the duels we will spend another half an hour on a patronus – it is a very very hard spell and I think we should start practising it rather sooner than later. Does someone disagree or have a different wish?”

As the group stayed silent Sam started explaining various types of spells in more detail and explained how to modify them, until he sent everyone into their groups.

Sally and Emilia headed to the side of the room where they had practised the last time.  
“Must be your dream lesson, right, since you were so fond of the last one?”, Sally grinned at her and Emilia blushed. Both of them stood at the very end of the room now.

Emilia decided to respond to her teasing for once.

“Do you remember our first chess game? What was it? ‘I wouldn't have let you win, I just waited for the last second to destroy you’, right?”, Emilia grinned, her face centimetres away from Sally's.

It was Sally's time to blush now and she moved back a little.

“You are playing with fire a little too much!”, she added with a very low and silent voice, and headed back to her spot.

Sally looked visibly worried. Emilia laughed, trying to calm her down again, and reminded herself to not be too harsh.

“Don’t worry, I wont hurt you.”, she smiled and raised her wand. “Ready? You start”


	12. Chapter 12

Sally took a deep breath and casted her first spell – which was promptly defended by Emilia. 

Although Emilia had decided to not let her win she started with very light and obvious attacks. Sally seemed to be glad, and defended most of them.

She wondered if Sally would also be strong enough to break out of her petrification. Most who had a good defence were also good at fighting spells. Just to give it a test Emilia made sure to attack very harshly after a few rounds of back and forth – but Sally defended.

Sally's eyes went wide, and she laughed  as she realized what she just had done .  Emilia grinned bac k. Fighting Sally got more and more interesting, and she loved every bit  of it.

“Don't underestimate me, Emilia! Defending such spells was always what I was best at.”, she still giggled.

‘Just wait’, Emilia thought and raised her wand with a devious smile. “Do you want to take that challenge?”, she asked.

Sally answered with a sparkle in her eyes and raised her wand as well – and Emilia casted. A row of spells shot towards Sally, who struggled, but still kept up her defence. Emilia tried to sneak her way around her massive shields as she launched the spells like a whip, harsh but precisely targeted. It took a few seconds until Sally's wall crumbled under the attacks that seemed to come from all directions.  With one final, sharp attack she crushed the  shield that had been weakened  by now  on nearly all corners around Sally and hit Sally right in the chest.

Sally's arms shot down her side, her facial expression neutralized and her legs stood in a perfect shoulder width apart. Emilia made sure to keep her friend standing straight  with another spell so she wouldn't fall over in her immobility and hurt herself.

She walked towards her friend with a wide grin. “ Don't beat yourself up for  breaking  in the end , you were extremely good!”, Emilia  reassured as she saw the glistering in Sally's eyes, and hoped she wasn't angry. The only thing Sally could control now was her eyes and her breath.

“Remember when they tortured me in class? You said it must have been awful. I’ll give you a chance to judge by yourself”, Emilia whispered with a devious smile and put one finger on Sally's bellybutton. To her delight Sally's breath started to tremble and the sparkle in her eyes switched to panic. ‘She _is_ ticklish!’ Emilia thought, and her cheeks started to burn. She couldn't help herself but to slightly wiggle her finger a few more times, making her friends breath even less rhythmical.

“Can you fight yourself out of it?”, Emilia asked and moved her finger away to give her a chance, watching her friend very closely. 

She could feel Sally fight, could feel her  struggle against Emilia's spell. When she almost slipped out she tightened her magical bonds around Sally and caught her in an even tighter shell. She laughed and Sally's eyes glimmered in anger.

“Come on Sally, you can do it!”, Thomas, the small and thin guy from before who practised a few meters away shouted.

Sally's resistance grew once more,  and this time Emilia let her proceed until she finally managed to break the invisible shell around her centimetre by centimetre. Sally tipped as the last part on her feet broke. Emilia applauded her with a bright smile and Thomas clapped.

“Damn, you are really good today!”, Emilia praised.

“Hah! Oh my god, getting out there was soo hard!”, Sally said. She seemed very content with herself.

After she got up she pointed her index finger towards Emilia's chest  and wiggled it a little . “ That part, y ou’ll regret!”, she teased.

Emilia knew she wasn't mad. She kept getting better and better at judging her emotions.

“Well, your defence IS strong, so maybe we should focus on your attack a bit more. Do your worst!”, Emilia grinned and repositioned herself 2 meters away.

Emilia only defended this time, which was way easier than attacking. She figured that Sally didn't really like fighting, that she liked defending and settling conflicts. Maybe she took it too serious, Emilia suspected. In the end, what they did here wasn't a fight. It was rather a game than anything else. Looking around the room Emilia knew that for some, for example Jady, this was dead serious, but the duel between Sally and Emilia was rather for fun.

After some time of brushing Sally's spells away Emilia started to give tips. She hoped that Sally could also improve her attack.

“Are YOU scared you will hurt me?”, she asked after a while.

“No?? I'm just too dumb to attack… I'm just so bad…”

Sally didn't look too happy  so E milia tried to cheer her up.

“No you are not, your technique is perfect by now, but you lack motivation.”

“What is that supposed to mean??”

“That you try to follow what you have been taught, but you never switch it up. You aren't attacking me, you cast spells at a target for no reason other then casting them.”, Emilia explained.

“I… well, what am I supposed to do then??”

“You are supposed to play”, Emilia grinned. “Just like you do when you beat me at chess. Your goal shouldn't be to be ‘as good’ as I am, your goal is to find a weak spot and exploit the hell out of it. To predict what I am gonna do, no matter how good you or I am. Being good or bad also isn't really definable – if you win, you win, if you don't, you don't and sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. Simple as that.”

Sally thought about it for a bit.

“But… there's no weak spots you have”, she finally said.

“There is always a weak spot, you just have to fight with your head, not your magic. Everyone can get distracted and everyone can underestimate an attack.”

When they started  duelling again Emilia already saw an improvement. Sally switched up attacks, sometimes they were quick and Emilia had to quickly flick them away, sometimes they were massive and Emilia's defence created a loud bang. In those moments Emilia slowly realized how much power Sally  could build with her attacks.  Her friend didn't know it herself, but  Emilia knew had the strength in her, she just couldn't use it.

They were far into the non-verbal round when Sally seemed to regain some confidence. Her strong attacks were rare, but she seemed to have found another style – Sally's attacks seemed to dance around Emilia, rather than crash into her. She needed lots of awareness to not miss a few of them.

“You can cast them faster, like I did, or harder from all sides!”

Emilia wasn't sure if her tips really were too helpful but she at least gave it a try. Sally started trying them non verbal from time to time, but Emilia advised against it for now. She would have enough time to practice non verbal casting separately from this lesson, building a strong attack was more important  for now .

Just like last time Sally was quite exhausted when the final duals started,  but Emilia was satisfied with Sally's progress. Of course she made sure to tell her.

“What attacks were your favourite so far?”, Emilia asked.

“I don't know… maybe anything that casts fire?”, Sally responded. “Or water. Basically everything with the four elements...”

“Oh I see, that's why you made the floor slippery with ice last time. Well, then make sure to use them now too, okay? Do what's fun for you, and what feels best. Not all the time of course, but keep mixing them in. Try to surprise me – you are good at surprising me anyways”, Emilia added with a grin.


End file.
